he indications of time are as follows. I. Those addressed to
Tiro are earlier than that of Quintus, because they refer to a
promised emancipation, while that of Quintus speaks of it as
accomplished. II. The letter of Quintus is after the emancipation
of his own freedman Statius, which apparently took place B.C. 59.
III. Quintus is at a distance from Italy, and is looking forward to
rejoin his brother and family. IV. Cicero is engaged on some more
than ordinary literary work. V. Pompey is visiting Cicero in his
Cuman villa. Now after his return from Asia (B.C. 58), Quintus was
only twice thus distant, in B.C. 57-56 in Sardinia, and in B.C.
54-53 in Britain and Gaul. In both of these periods Cicero was
engaged on literary work; in the former on the _de Oratore_, in the
latter on the _de Republica_. There is really no means of deciding
between these two. It is even possible that they might be placed
some time during the proprietorship of Quintus in Asia (B.C.
62-59), during which Cicero was engaged, among other things, on a
poem on his own times and a history of his consulship. Tiro--or M.
Tullius Tiro, as he was called after his emancipation--was not a
young man, and may well have been emancipated even in B.C. 59.
According to Hieronymus, he died in B.C. 5 in his hundredth year.
He was therefore little more than a year younger than Cicero
himself. The illness of Tiro must have been an earlier one than
that of which we shall hear much in B.C. 50-49.

I (F XVI, 13)

TO TIRO

(CUMAE) 10 APRIL

I shall consider that I have everything possible from you, if I see you
in good health. I am awaiting the arrival of Andricus, whom I sent to
you, with the utmost anxiety. Do take pains to recover, if you love me:
and as soon as you have thoroughly re-established your health, come to
me. Good-bye.

10 April.

II (F XVI, 14)

TO TIRO

(CUMAE) 11 APRIL

Andricus arrived a day later than I expected him, and accordingly I had
a night of terror and unhappiness. Your letter does not make me at all
more certain of your state, and yet it did revive me. I can take
pleasure in nothing; can employ myself in no literary work, which I
cannot touch till I have seen you. Give orders to promise the doctor any
fee he chooses to ask. I wrote to that effect to Ummidius. I am told
that your mind is ill at ease, and tha